


Your Beauty Must Be Rubbing Off

by Meggory



Category: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Gen, Master Dooku, Padawan Jinn, Pre-Prequel, Tumblr Prompt, a tad fluffy, also lizards, and holocrons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-08
Updated: 2017-04-08
Packaged: 2018-10-16 04:59:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10564116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meggory/pseuds/Meggory
Summary: Padawan Jinn's made a mistake. Master Dooku needs to not screw this up, or Jocasta will never let him hear the end of it.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [myurbandream (jen_chan13)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jen_chan13/gifts).



Dooku could sense the boy, just barely, under the thrum of the Force in the Room of a Thousand Fountains. Not for the first time, he wondered if taking Qui-Gon as an apprentice at nine had been a truly wise idea. The boy was so blasted  _ young _ . Not for the first time, he shoved the thought away and delved further into the gardens.

He found his tiny Padawan curled up in the hollow bole of a karuki nut tree, face pressed into the dirty fabric covering his knees. During his time in the crèche, Qui-Gon had learned to cry silently to avoid attracting attention. Dooku knelt down in the mulch, biting back a sigh at getting his trousers covered in bark. His heart dropped at the sight of the boy’s shaking shoulders.

“Qui-Gon,” Dooku said softly.

The little chestnut-haired boy lifted his head just enough to peer over his knees. His blue eyes were red-rimmed. “I’ll pack my things,” he said into his knees. The dejection in his voice was palpable.

Dooku raised his eyebrow, the one he reserved for particularly ridiculous statements. “And why, pray tell, would packing your things be the solution for this problem?” he asked neutrally. Shifting away from the bole, he added, “Would you mind if we talked out here? I’m afraid won’t fit in your tree.”

The barest hint of a giggle escaped Qui-Gon’s lips, quickly covered with a shuddering breath. “Yes, Master Dooku.” He crawled out of the tree on his hands and knees, worsening the state of his leggings, and sat cross-legged next to the Jedi Knight. The boy squared his shoulders as if steeling himself, and words flooded from his mouth. “I’m so sorry, Master Dooku, I didn’t mean to break the holocron and I didn’t mean to be in there in the first place, I know I’m not supposed to be down there, but I saw a lizard and I know that it’s not supposed to be there  _ either _ and I thought I would just catch it and bring it back here so it didn’t get cold or miss his family, see, he was just a baby lizard--”

“Qui-Gon--”

“And he was  _ scared _ , I could feel it, so I followed him, and the door was open, and I had seen holocrons before in history class, so I thought I would say hello, because what if the holocrons get lonely stuck in there when no one’s using them--”

“Qui-Gon--”

“But my fingers weren’t big enough to press all the opening buttons and it fell and oh, I’m  _ so sorry _ Master Dooku, I really didn’t mean--”

“Qui-Gon!” The boy snapped his mouth shut so hard Dooku heard his teeth click. He really was so earnest, so concerned with others. Jocasta had warned him quite sternly not to crush the boy’s spirit the day Dooku took Qui-Gon as his Padawan.  _ Easy for her to say. Her apprentice has never destroyed a priceless Jedi artifact. _

Qui-Gon was waiting--waiting for his punishment, to be told that he would be expelled as a disgrace and taken from his teaching Master a mere two months after earning the rare privilege of an early apprenticeship. He heard Jocasta’s voice in his head once more:  _ don’t screw this up. He’s not like you, Dooku. He feels things more deeply than you or I ever will _ .

Fuck.

Dooku rubbed a hand over his clean-shaven face and shifted to face Qui-Gon. He crossed his legs so they were mirrors of each other. “Qui-Gon, I want to tell you something very important.”

“A secret?”

“Hmm. Not exactly, but it’s something you’re not supposed to know until you are grown up and Knighted and have your own apprentice.” That got the boy’s attention. He leaned forward, eager to hear this grown-up tidbit of information.

Dooku leaned forward so their heads were almost touching. “There will be times when your apprentice will make a mistake. Big mistakes, little mistakes, all sorts of mistakes. There will be times when you, the teaching Master, will make a mistake.” Qui-Gon’s eyes were wide as moons, and he nodded gravely. “The trick to it, Qui-Gon, is that when you choose an apprentice, you don’t just pick a child at random from the crèche. You have to be careful. You have to pick the child that you will love and care for no matter what mistakes they make. If you choose the wrong child, things won’t go very well.”

“Oh.” Qui-Gon’s face fell. “I think you chose the wrong child, Master. Things aren’t going very well.”

For once, Dooku said was he was thinking and let his emotions seep out into the Force where Qui-Gon could sense them. “No, little one. I chose just right.”

He was suddenly engulfed in a flurry of apprentice’s robes and knobby elbows as Qui-Gon threw himself into his arms. Not caring who might see him, Dooku hugged the boy close. Maybe he had not screwed this up after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi folks! This was a prompt challenge from myurbandream over on the Tumblr, who wanted to see Master!Dooku: Tell Me-I’ll write a drabble about one character confessing something to another [be it a love confession, a secret, feel free to specify.] It's not specifically set in the Beekeeping and Husbandry AU, but it could be.


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